In this episode, we sit down with our friend Monsignor Shea from University of Mary. We talk about stepping into an apostolic age, the age of Fatherhood, warnings of longing for utopia, and what the saints of our age will look like.

We recorded this episode in the Spoke Street Booth at SEEK 2023.

Important Things

Lists & Resources

Shownotes

We recorded this episode in the Spoke Street Booth at SEEK 2023.

Quotes

“The ultimate design of our hearts is to firmly attach to God as Father.” - Jason Jensen

“In every age this happens and in every age how does God answer? He raises up saints to be his warriors to fight for him within the church. And then the church builds up the immunity for the good of the Church and the good of the culture.” - Monsignor Shea

“The saints canonized in the next 50 years, are the ones who got infected by the disease of the culture and then they allowed Christ to transform them personally, and it’s the collective doing of saints becoming saints that are those antibodies.” - Jason

“The accuser reeks havoc on the hearts of men and women with these questions of shame, presumption, and self relance. And the answer to that is of course to reject them. And say no, I am enough and God has given me everything I need to fulfill my purpose in this life, what He has placed me here to do… He hasn’t given my mission to anyone else.” - Monsignor Shea

“The dark times are when Christians are really meant to shine. Christiantiy is a religion for a broken world.” - Monsignor Shea

Important Things

Lists & Resources

Shownotes

We recorded this episode in the Spoke Street Booth at SEEK 2023.

Quotes

“The ultimate design of our hearts is to firmly attach to God as Father.” - Jason Jensen

“In every age this happens and in every age how does God answer? He raises up saints to be his warriors to fight for him within the church. And then the church builds up the immunity for the good of the Church and the good of the culture.” - Monsignor Shea

“The saints canonized in the next 50 years, are the ones who got infected by the disease of the culture and then they allowed Christ to transform them personally, and it’s the collective doing of saints becoming saints that are those antibodies.” - Jason Jensen

“The accuser reeks havoc on the hearts of men and women with these questions of shame, presumption, and self relance. And the answer to that is of course to reject them. And say no, I am enough and God has given me everything I need to fulfill my purpose in this life, what He has placed me here to do… He hasn’t given my mission to anyone else.” - Monsignor Shea

“The dark times are when Christians are really meant to shine. Christiantiy is a religion for a broken world.” - Monsignor Shea

How do we meaningly engage conversation around topics that are highly charged in our culture? Join our conversation with Anna Carter, the founder of Eden Invitation, a community for Catholics that promotes the fullness of personal identity beyond the LGBTQ paradigm. We talk about acceptance, relationship, and finding common ground under compassionate orthodoxy.

### QUOTES

What does the human heart need above sexual fulfillment: love, belonging, acceptance. That doesn't mean accepting the entirety of the person. I feel acceptance and people don't accept every sin I commit. We do have bigger paradigms to operate under but all of a sudden our paradigm within this context just shrinks, and we think, I have nothing.” - Jason

“If I love someone well, they stay. And I think that's the secret sauce of Jesus. It’s the woman at the well, Zacheus, the leper—all these people realize, this man is loving me.” - Jason

Part of [this] comes down to the individual accompaniment. Asking people, how is your prayer? What is the question behind their question? What’s going on in other aspects of his life and the full context of his life?” - Anna

“What would it look like if we suffered with those that are gender minorities? What are your pain points in the church? What are the expectations on your life? What’s hard? What is the suffering and how can I be in it with you?” - Anna

“It’s easy to put a wall up when someone experiences passion in a way that we don’t understand. When in reality, there are scorching passions inside all of us. Am I willing to be in tune with my own? Am I willing to be in tune with the way I cry out and to look at you from that gaze of understanding?” - Anna

“You can’t take someone into their story further than what you’re willing to go into yourself.” - Jason

*### The Important Things: *

10:21 - A lot of it comes down to the individual accompaniment and asking the questions behind their questions. What is their context? What other aspects are going on in their life?

12:15 - “I think we are guilty of the same thing we accuse the LBGTQ community of doing. Which is identifying by sexuality…. All of a sudden, everything we know about ministry gets tossed out the window. Everything we know about human development and human formation and spiritual formation, all of a sudden it drops out of our backpack and we don’t know what to do. Which is sort of identifying them by it. It’s saying, because you’re this, I don’t have ways to help you.”

14:00 - The principle is being confident in your life in Jesus in order to offer it to others. The second is giving people what they need from a human level: belonging, love, acceptance.

26:15 - What do we do when we don’t know how to engage meaningfully? You have to consider: the internal reality of the hearer, your own intention, and how culture has infused words with different meanings. But what matters most of all is the heart. What is the intention behind the language and conversation?

48:08 - Compassionate orthodoxy: It can be empathy and understanding. But it can also be suffering with—to love, and be called to charity. What are their pains in culture and the Church? We can find common ground in the human experience of being in the wilderness.

Lists & Resources

In a culture where identity is defined by the approval of peers and culture rather than authority, what is that doing to our souls? We talk with Tim Glemkowski, Director of Strategy at the Archdiocese of Denver as well as a speaker and author, about addressing shame with identity by better understanding we are fathered by God and the implications of that on how we share the Gospel. We talk about a way of life and how we get to freedom here and now.

3:00 - We’re moving from a guilt-based culture to a shame-based culture. When we sin and feel that disconnect in ourselves, we feel like something is wrong with us instead of there is something that we need to rid ourselves of.

We talk about how we communicate the gospel in a world that is moving from guilt culture to shame culture. We address Fatherhood, living in complete confidence that we are loved, and how we allow others in our life to experience that.

“We need a way of talking about sin that actually responds to a shame vs. guilt culture.” - Tim

“When we recognize, I’m still super empty and doing all this and trying to live really well is not satisfying me; if we’re the arbiter of that, we’re also responsible for that too so then I am wrong, there must be something wrong with me.” - Tim

“We’ve been taken from our father’s house and what he’s doing when he is hanging on the cross is him getting his world back.” - Tim

It’s not just, my sin gets wiped away but to my very core, loved in my unloveliness, I actually become something lovable.” - Tim

“We’re a culture that is so let down by our fathers that we want to reject the authority of the Father, thinking that’s the source of the problem but it’s broken fathers. We need that fatherhood. Only under the umbrella of his authority that you can live the freedom that comes from being a child.” - Tim

“{The Gospel} is the story of a father. The father creates and then when his children are lost, he comes looking for them.” - Tim

“God is sewing in us the ability to not whiteknuckle our faith.” - Jason

“I really think this is the age of the laity. We as lay have to live this way of life. And if you look back at these orders and ask, how did they always bring renewal? A radical new way of holiness, in community that eventually led to mission. It’s community and mission.” - Tim

Gordy DeMarais, founder and President of Saint Paul’s Outreach in Minnesota joined us to talk about community, belonging, and the fundamental question that society is asking itself right now. We cover our role in the New Evangelization and the criticalness of discipleship, evangelism, and community in today’s society.

From Christendom to Apostolic Mission - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53637909-from-christendom-to-apostolic-mission

In this episode we talk about the New Evangelization and the question society is asking themselves: Who am I? We talk about how a relationship with God and one another helps us understand this question and then become a primary agent of evangelization in today’s world.

QUOTES

“With the New Evangelization, the Church has recognized in part that there’s a new mission field. And that new mission field is our backyard.” - Gordy DeMarais

“There’s something about God’s very nature that informs this fundamental question about, who am I? And at its core is, I am not alone and I’ve never been alone. And not only am I not alone in my call to be in communion with God but by His very nature, it points to my living in relationship with other people.” - Gordy DeMarais

“I think sometimes we think that just what we need to do is a better job at living church life. Our solutions need to be comprehensive. They need to be fundamental. There is no silver bullet; there is no quick fix. It’s not going to be the latest book or bringing in some speakers or adopting this new program. In a lot of ways, those are not diagnosing the problem correctly. They really are band-aid solutions and they aren’t going to be the seedbed that ultimately, the Church has in renewing the whole culture.” - Gordy DeMarais

“You don’t even start with the basic Gospel message of what God has done for us in Jesus. What you start with is the witness of a healthy, lived relationship.” - Gordy DeMarais

“Way of life is moving through seasons well to be in the rhythm of God. It’s not just reading your bible and praying everyday. It’s that and so much more and with others. ” - Jason Jensen

“You can’t be the family of God if the only reason you are in relationship with other people is because you are doing some function together.” - Gordy DeMarais

“Creatures created in the likeness and image of God who actually need to be formed in a school of love. To actually learn what it means to love.” - Gordy DeMarais

“Before you even get to what you do together as a people there needs to be this underlying commitment to these relationships however that’s expressed.” - Gordy DeMarais

“Take an approach to your prayer and relationship with God that is radical honesty. The lord doesn’t meet us in some future distant point that we need to get to. He meets us exactly where we’re at.” - Gordy DeMarais

Knowing who we are as sons and daughters is the starting point to evangelization. In this podcast, Jason sits down with Pete Burak from Intentional Disciples to talk about identity, authenticity, and reaching millennials who are leaving the Church. We talk about the importance of community in understanding our identity and the power of the gospel to shift the genre of our own narrative.

*The Important Things: *

List & Resources

*Show Notes *

How we understand our own story impacts how we journey with others in their story. So what small and big story are we living out? Join us as we talk with Heather Khym from Abiding Together Podcast and Life Restoration about the power of understanding our own story, living in freedom, and the tension of living in truth in our world. We talk about the importance as ministry leaders, to lead with belonging first, story first, and felt needs first.

*The Important Things: *

List & Resources

SHOW NOTES

QUOTES

“We are called to a full life but most of us end up living in a kind of mediocrity because the ways we want to live are upended by reactions within our heart and walls we put up.” - Heather

“The ultimate thing that happens in bad interpretations (of our story) is a lack of freedom.” - Jason

“Everybody has a story that is unfolding and when we’re sensitive to that fact and to the places within our own story that are broken; it changes the way we minister to people.” - Heather

“Wouldn’t it be just great trust building for me not to have the pressure of whatever the ministry hat is and the pressure that I’m feeling? Rather, just saying, I’m a story interpreter with others. Then I can just sit there and listen to your story without an agenda and just understand what’s happening in your heart.” - Jason

“The difference between small stories and big stories is the degree to which you feel comfortable risking because you feel secure in your guide.” - Jason

“Even if we feel a certain way, even if it’s compassion and brokenness for someone… that doesn’t mean that I then have to change what I believe in order to meet that person where they are.” - Heather

“There is a time and place for everything. Most people have so many felt needs that it’s overwhelming.. You can’t go there with other (faith) stuff until you get into their story and you start journeying with them.” - Jason

“Sitting in the pews are people whose marriages are falling apart, they are more depressed and anxious than ever, they don’t know if they believe in God, their hearts are completely broken, they are in financial crisis, whatever it might be… there are stories sitting here who desperately need the Gospel. They need to know Jesus is there for them.” - Heather

“As ministers, we want to help people encounter the Jesus we’ve encountered. I pray we can live by those dynamics where it’s story first, belonging first, felt needs first. I think those are the things that give me so much hope.” - Jason

How do we start mapping our ministry model against the technological and cultural changes that are impacting our world? Do we need a new ministry model in today’s world and if so, what does that mean?

In our first episode, we’re talking about technology, ministry, and what it means to pursue Christ in today’s world so that we can be faithful to what we’re being called to in our day. We discuss what it means to relate to the Church and how we can meet people where they’re at right now.

Joining us is Michael Gormley of Catching Foxes Podcast.

(1:00) We are moving into a new ministry model that is not actually anything new but returning to an old way of ministry.

In the last year, we’ve lost 20% of those affiliated to the Church - https://www.barna.com/research/changing-state-of-the-church/

Pope Benedict said, “we need to evangelize the tech continent.” - https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/messages/communications/documents/hf_ben-xvi_mes_20100124_44th-world-communications-day.html

Apple head of retail wanted the the stores to become the new town square. This was a huge flop (this was not the information I found… https://www.indigo9digital.com/blog/the-secret-to-apple-stores-success)

In this episode, we discuss the world we live in and how to map our ministry model against the world that is now instead of the world that was.

“We’re seeing this new ministry model emerge and ministry being the right ordering of relationship according to the kingdom of God.” - Jason Jensen, CEO of Glass Canvas

“We have to start orienting our efforts around the world that is, instead of the world that has been.” - Jason Jensen, CEO of Glass Canvas

“Too often we are dismissive of technology to communicate the gospel… Maybe as a Catholic Church, we need to unleash technology in appropriate ways. - Gomer

“We used to gather in cathedrals or in the town church, that’s where everyone gathered. But we no longer do that. Where do we gather? We gather online. We gather digitally. We gather on social media. It's not the gathering that our hearts need but it is where the discussion of the day is happening.” - Jason Jensen, CEO of Glass Canvas

“Technology can also clear the way for more meaningful in-person relationship” - Gomer

“We’ve jumped forward into the future and now the world is going to expect it.” - Jason Jensen, CEO of Glass Canvas

“[The gospel] is going to start spreading in homes. It’s going to start spreading in small communities and that littleness again. And that’s powerful because once it catches, it’s pretty hard to put out.” - Jason Jensen, CEO of Glass Canvas

“The temptation for evangelists is compromising the church and what she asks of us and we water down the heroism of facing yourself in the morning as you truly are.” - Gomer

“To keep people in the church, we do this desperate thing where we loosen what it means to be a part of the church. But if we stay true to what the Church is asking, it actually draws people in.” - Gomer

In this episode, Jason and JM sit down to talk about how God has worked in Glass Canvas to bring us to this moment now where the team has shifted from being an agency to a product-based company. They talk about how God has clearly spoken and taught our team over the years and what to expect in season two of Speak the Unspoken Podcast.

Previous Glass Canvas Quarterly Statements:

There is an entire community of ministries, individuals, families, and communities that made this journey possible that were not mentioned in this podcast. It would be a long list to name every one of them, but we do want to note that God was instrumental in bringing so many people into our lives to support us. Thank you to all.

Here are a few of the partnerships we mention in the episode:

*Quotes: *

“There was a disconnect between a really great tool for the business world and tools built within faith-based contexts that we’re built as great at the outside.” - Jason

“We didn’t set out to be where we are today. But God had this thread that we couldn’t even see but it just kept naturally progressing to the point where we are.” - JM

“I grew up a missionary kid, I’ve been a part of different things, but still, every quarterly I get excited for the fact that it’s still such an obvious way of seeing God work through multiple people and having that affirmation of what He is saying.” - JM

Remember Signal Hill from Episode 1? We sat down to talk with this incredible organization about how they brought to life one of their most foundational tools—the Value Project. This unique student conference came to life from their why—Value Every Person. To do it well, they designed three days of speakers, workshops, and experiences specifically to engage high school students so they could personally experience what it means to value every human, starting with themselves.

*Our Favourite Quote: *

Links & Resources: